Various alcohols, including fluorine-containing alcohols, have been prepared in the past by the reduction of their corresponding acid or ester precursors with an alkali metal borohydride with varying degrees of success. In particular, yields of fluoroalcohols from such methods have been relatively low, and the recovery of products has been generally difficult or inconvenient. Typically, a prior art process prepares 1H,1H-heptafluorobutanol by a reductive process while employing relatively massive amounts of diluent, followed by multiple evaporation and solvent extraction steps to recover these products.